Monday, November 2, 2009

Soulish Prayer

Jude 1:18-20 …….. "In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires." These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit. But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit.

As we discovered in recent Gists, often we do not know how we ought to pray (Romans 8:26). At times like these the Holy Spirit helps us. Therefore, the last thing we should do when we do not know how to pray is to go ahead and pray out of our soul because this will invariably do more harm than good.

Our soul comprises our mind, our will and our emotions and it will conceive an amazing assortment of unsanctified good ideas. As Godly as these good ideas might seem, if they were not inspired by the Holy Spirit, no matter how much we dress them up in religious sounding Christianese, they are soulish.

Rather than praying the will of God to be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10), we end up praying our own will from our own understanding influenced by how we feel. These kinds of prayers are unspiritual and selfish. The words that we speak can be creative or destructive; a blessing or a curse (James 3:9-10).

Soulish prayers are counter-productive and can be used by the enemy to block and delay the heavenly response to genuine Holy Spirit inspired prayers (Daniel 10:12-13). Surely, true and genuine Godly prayer is born out of an intimate, deep and personal relationship with God our Father. We can only have such a relationship if we have met Jesus Christ at Calvary and become Christians.

Once born again and baptised in the Holy Spirit (John 1:29 and 33), not only do we have access to God in heaven but we have insight into His heart of compassion. As we spend time with Him we come to know His will as the Holy Spirit leads us in progressive revelation. Jesus teaches us how to pray.

When we pray like Jesus we will see life-changing and world-changing miracles happen all around us as the will of God is done on earth as it is in heaven.

Lord Jesus, please help us to pray like you. Amen

YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khrVXgjUOzs

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